1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a plasma display panel (PDP). More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to a PDP with a dielectric layer structure capable of preventing a misdischarge at edges of the PDP.
2. Description of the Related Art
A PDP may refer to a flat panel display device that displays images via a discharge phenomenon. More particularly, the PDP may include a plurality of discharge cells filled with a discharge gas, so application of voltage to the discharge cells may generate ultraviolet (UV) light and trigger emission of visible light. In particular, the conventional PDP may be driven by generating a reset discharge, an address discharge, and a sustain discharge in each discharge cell, and the PDP may continuously form a predetermined image by controlling the sustain discharge in each discharge cell.
A conventional PDP may include first and second substrates, so the plurality of discharge cells and a plurality of electrodes may be arranged between the first and second substrates. The conventional PDP may further include a dielectric layer on the first substrate and barrier ribs between the first and second substrates to define the discharge cells.
The first and second substrates may be attached to each other via a frit layer in a peripheral region of the PDP. Since a height of the barrier ribs, however, may be different from a height of the frit layer, when the first and second substrates are pressed together, the first substrate and the dielectric layer thereon may not be capable of adjusting for the height difference between the barrier ribs and the frit layer. Therefore, a portion of the first substrate and a portion of the dielectric layer may be forced to protrude away from the barrier ribs in the peripheral region of the PDP, e.g., bending range of about −0.10 to about 0.00, while other portions of the first substrate and the dielectric layer may be substantially unbent. Such a protrusion may cause non-uniform gaps between the first and second substrates along edges thereof, e.g., at an edge region among regions formed at both sides along a longitudinal direction of the PDP, thereby causing misdischarge in corresponding regions of the PDP and areas adjacent thereto.
For example, the degrees of bending of the first and second substrates may be measured in the peripheral region of the PDP, e.g., a region extending away from the display region by about 80 nm at both sides in a horizontal direction of the PDP. If a difference in the degrees of bending of the first substrate is about 40 μm and a difference in the degrees of bending of the second substrate is about 25 μm, the gap between the first and second substrates may be about 15 μm. When a sustain voltage is applied to sustain electrodes to create a sustain discharge, such a gap may trigger a misdischarge in some peripheral regions of the PDP, so image quality of the PDP may deteriorate.